"for the land s." Now, there is not the leaft evidence, that any of them concurred in the cruel conduct of their progenitor. Yet the defignation of a "bloody houfe" is transferred to them, becaufe" he flew the Gibeonites." We must bclieve that God acted with perfect equity in the whole of the tranfaction. But there is a depth in this judgment which we cannot pretend to fathom.

God hath dealt in this very manner with his own people. He fubjected the child, that David had begotten in adultery, to death; and declared, that the fword fhould never depart from his houfe, becaufe he had murdered Uriah '.

Thefe facts, recorded by the Spirit of God, are perfectly confonant to many doctrinal teftimonies contained in Scripture on this fubject. Speaking of the wicked, Job faith; "God layeth up his "iniquity for his children." He compares it to thofe treasures, which men are eager to amafs for their. pofterity. Thus Jeremiah complains, as perfonating the afflicted Church of God; "Our fa"thers have finned and are not, and we have "borne their iniquities t." Elfewhere he confiders this branch of the divine conduct as ground of adoration; "Thou-recompenfeft the iniquity "of the fathers into the bofom of their children "after them: the great, the mighty God, the "LORD of Hofts is his name "."

Although men were to difregard the language of Scripture, their own obfervation would fupply them

q 2 Sam. xxi. 1.-9. 14. t Lam v. 7.

r 2 Sam. xii. 10. 14. s Job xxi. 19. u Jer. xxxii. 18.

Are

them with fufficient evidence of this truth. not children fubjected to poverty and want, in confequence of the prodigality of their parents? Do they not derive from them peculiar difeafes, which are the natural confequences of vice? Do they not often endure great and long-continued fufferings from fuch diseases? Do not these frequently iffue in premature death? Now, unless it can be proved, that fuffering, or even death, is in itself no punishment; it must be admitted, that children are punished, by fuch hereditary difeafes, for the crimes of their parents, although they have had no hand in them.

God vifits none in this manner, who are otherwife abfolutely innocent. When treated as guilty, in being fubjected to fuffering in confequence of the fins of their more immediate ancestors, they are primarily viewed as tranfgreffors in their first parent. Thus, indeed, God vindicates his juftice in the imputation of Adam's firft fin. While many object to this doctrine, as if it were inconfiftent with the rectitude of the divine nature, that men fhould fuffer for what was not their perfonal act; let them fhew how, according to this reasoning, it is juft with God to visit the iniquities of more immediate progenitors on their pofterity or let them both set aside the evidence of inconteftable facts, and fairly deny the truth of the Sacred History in this refpect, that they may appear in their real character. Alas! that there is fo much refined deism among us; that so many profefs to believe the truth of revelation, who notwithstanding

VOL. II.

H

notwithstanding difcover the infincerity of their profeffion, by trampling on the authority of the Spirit of infpiration, when his teftimony opposes their own imaginations!

II. The fathers are, according to this procedure, punished in their feed. Children are viewed as exifting in their parents, long before they have actual being; as Levi paid tithes in the loins of Abraham. In like manner, parents are viewed as exifting in their children, even after they have themselves left the ftage of life. This is evident from the very manner in which the bleffing, or the cuffe, was often pronounced. Shem and Japhet were bleffed in their pofterity, Ham was curfed in his for both the bleffing and the curfe had a special refpect to fucceeding genera-` tions. When Jacob received the blessing, it had alfo a peculiar reference to his defcendants; while Efau was juftly punished by God, not only in his perfon, but in his pofterity, because of his profaneness in felling his birthright. The bleffings prophetically pronounced by Jacob, on his fons, immediately respected their offspring. Yet the bleffing of Jofeph is expreffed as if it had been merely perfonal: "The bleffings of thy father "have prevailed above the bleffings of my proge"nitors;-they fhall be on the head of Jofeph, "and on the crown of the head of him that was

66

feparate from his brethren." The fame obfervation holds true as to the other bleffings. The patriarch views the various tribes as prefent in

the

the perfons of their progenitors; and the facred hiftorian gives us the very fame reprefentation: "All these are the twelve tribes of Ifrael: and "this is it that their father fpake unto them, and bleffed them; every one according to his blef

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W

fing he bleffed them." Reuben is punished in the lot of the tribe which was to fpring from him: "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; be"cause thou wenteft up to thy father's bed, then "defiledft thou it: he went up to my couch." Simeon and Levi are punished in their feed. Becaufe "inftruments of cruelty were in their ha"bitations," their father faid; "I will divide "them in Jacob, and scatter them in Ifrael "." The ftain, attending the difperfion of Levi, was indeed afterwards in great meafure wiped away; as God chofe this tribe to the service of the tabernacle and temple, and "fcattered them in Ja"cob” as inftructors of the people. But as originally expreffed, it was rather a curfe than a bleffing; and Levi was himfelf punished in the denunciation, especially as he had no intimation of the bleffed iffue.

This punishment is inflicted in various ways and degrees. Parents fometimes fee the vengeance executed, before their own death. Thus it was with Eli. He "honoured his fons above" God; for when they "made themfelves vile, he re"ftrained them not:" whence he is himself charged with kicking at God's facrifice and offering . It was therefore foretold concerning his two fons; H 2

X

"In

x I Sam. ii. 29; iii. 13.

"In one day they shall die both of them :" and his life was fpared only that he might see the completion of this awful threatening, as a sign of the future infliction of the hereditary judgments denounced against his house. For the LORD had "told him, that he would judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew," and, by giving no proper check to it, virtually approved. These judgments, although properly affecting his pofterity, are all defcribed as directed against himself; whether inflicted during his own life, or in fucceeding generations: "I will per"form against Eli all things which I have spoken "concerning his houfe: when I begin, I will "alfo make an end y."

The young generation of Ifrael, although not like their fathers, bore their iniquity. Their fufferings, however, were especially meant for the punishment of their rebellious parents. For the children fuffered, only till that generation was extinct, which had come out of Egypt. This is evident from the fentence pronounced by their God: "As for you, your carcafes, they fhall fall in this "wilderness. And your children shall wander in "the wilderness forty years, and bear your whore"doms," that is, the punishment of them, "until

your carcafes be wafted in the wilderness "."

Parents, although they fee not the vengeance themselves, are fometimes punished in their feed, by seeing its certainty in the threatening. When Ahab had, by impiety and murder, got poffeffion

yx Sam. iii. 12, 13.

z Numb. xiv. 32, 33

of